NTT DoCoMo Inc’s foray into the European wireless market is an important step for the ambitious Japanese mobile phone giant in its plans to become a global player not just in mobile communications but also in the wireless Internet.

DoCoMo is spending £1.2 billion for 20% of Hutchison 3G UK Holdings Ltd, which owns a British third-generation UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) license together with Canada’s Telesystem International Wireless Inc. The Japanese operator which already has a tie-up with KPN Mobile in the Netherlands is also exploring opportunities in France, Germany and Belgium, among other European countries.

DoCoMo’s strong card is the success of i-mode, its wireless Internet service in Japan which now has about 9 million subscribers.

In developing i-mode, DoCoMo’s set out to give the service the broadest possible mass-market appeal by developing a wide range of content. It now has over 500 ‘application partners’ who provide an ever-expanding range of applications and services including a small but growing number in English. These include e-mail, on-line chat, business, financial, general and sports news, games, horoscopes, restaurant guides, Internet banking and insurance, airline and travel reservations, train timetables, entertainment bookings, rent-a-car, music downloads, job search, apartment rentals, pollen counts, links to corporate intranets, and . . . . . well, more.

There are no prizes for guessing Japan’s favorite mobile application - e-mail, which is used by three quarters of i-mode subscribers. Not all the messaging is between friends - companies are finding ever more e-mail opportunities. For example, video rental chain Tsutaya will e-mail their i-mode club members the address of the nearest store with a desired CD or Video in stock.

When time comes to surf i-mode’s content, amusement and entertainment are the most popular features, accounting for 40% of traffic. Information services such as news and weather account for another 20%, with financial services accounting for 10-15%, catalogue services such as telephone directory assistance generate about 10% of traffic. Services offered outside DoCoMo’s own portal account for the remaining 10-15%.

The scale of Japan’s wireless Internet is attracting the attention of marketers and agencies. Earlier this year, O&M launched launched m.Ogilvy, a consultancy to assist clients take advantage of the new communication opportunities of mobile phones.

m.Ogilvy is headed by Dr. John Ricketts, a former fellow of the Japanese Science and Technology Agency on new technologies. " Japan represents "the learning edge of mobile marketing. The phenomenal success of NTT Docomo’s i-mode represents a laboratory for the rest of the world." "Our business model has very little to do with advertising. Really understanding the needs of marketers in great depth and being able to deliver solutions that match these needs drives the business", Dr. Ricketts explained.

McCann Erickson are developing a broadly based consultancy approach, Zentropy Partnership which draws on the agency’s worldwide skills. " We will partner with our people and with our clients to be the most successful global digital business integrator, " explained Chris Beaumont, McCann’s executive vice president in Tokyo who is masterminding Zentropy in Asia. "Simply put, we will be providing end-to-end solutions. Zentropy innovates around the customer, it is about delivering real-world results not technology," Beaumont explained. Mobile is part of Zentropy’s overall package.

NOTE:  By the end of October 2000, NTT DoCoMo's i-mode service had over 14 million users in Japan.